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Khodorkovsky on hunger strike

Jailed former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been on a hunger strike for several days in solidarity with an imprisoned former colleague who has been placed in solitary confinement, one of his lawyers said on Tuesday on a Moscow radio station.

Speaking on Echo Moscow radio, lawyer Anton Drel said Khodorkovsky, the founder of the Yukos oil company and once the wealthiest person in Russia, had asked him to read a statement saying that he had begun refusing food and water in support of Platon Lebedev, a former business associate.

Lebedev was placed in solitary confinement on Friday as punishment for refusing to participate in daily walks outside his cell and for "insulting" guards at the Moscow prison where he and Khodorkovsky are currently being held, according to officials and media reports.

"Platon is seriously ill and has simply not been in a condition for more than a year to go out for his prison walks," the statement read by the lawyer said.

The pair were sentenced on May 31 to nine years imprisonment following conviction on charges of massive fraud, tax evasion and embezzlement that many saw as punishment for Khodorkovsky's forays into Russian politics.

The statement read by the lawyer and attributed by him to Khodorkovsky noted that the date of Lebedev's transfer to solitary confinement -- Aug. 19 -- coincided with the 14th anniversary of an attempted right-wing coup in what was then the Soviet Union.

It described the official reason for Lebedev's transfer -- his refusal to go out for walks -- as a "pretext" and said it was in fact an act directed at Khodorkovsky in reprisal for a series of newspaper articles and political interview with him published in the months since his conviction.

In one of those articles, published in the business daily Vedomosti on Aug. 1, Khodorkovsky called on Russia's fragmented liberal groups to unite to bring about a "left turn" in the country's political situation.

Khodorkovsky himself was transferred earlier this month to a communal cell he shares with 10 other inmates. He had previously been detained a more comfortable cell.

"Let the Kremlin believe that it is showing its strength," the statement read by Drel said. "In fact, this is a demonstration of weakness and fear.

"I began a hunger strike in solidarity with my friend, Platon Lebedev. He knows that he is not alone. And all of my compatriots whose hearts beat for justice and freedom should know: We are together," it added.

The Russian television network NTV, more independent from state control than most other national networks, also reported the statement attributed to Khodorkovsky, albeit editing out several paragraphs critical of the Kremlin.

Once the top news story in Russia, the fate of Khodorkovsky and the Yukos oil empire he once headed have quickly dropped off the radar in the three months since he and Lebedev were convicted and sentenced, as had been widely predicted.

Contrary to some predictions, foreign investment in Russia has surged this year and brokers say fears among investors that the prosecution of Khodorkovsky and the partial dismantlement of Yukos could herald a wider state assault on private industry have largely subsided.

Khodorkovsky was quoted recently as saying that he would consider standing as a candidate in elections to the country's powerful lower house of parliament, the State Duma.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for the liberal opposition Yabloko party and another prominent opposition politician, Irina Khakamada, both said they would support a Khodorkovsky candidacy.
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